


Ambergris Aftermath

by Clare_Spradley_I



Category: H2O: Just Add Water
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:14:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29021784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clare_Spradley_I/pseuds/Clare_Spradley_I
Summary: "We were lucky Zane and Lewis were looking out for us today." Cleo told Rikki after Emma took off to apologize to Ash. "Yeah." Rikki replied. "A little too lucky, don't you think?" What I imagine happened after Irresistible (S2 EP 15).
Relationships: Zane Bennett/Rikki Chadwick
Kudos: 22





	Ambergris Aftermath

“We’re lucky Zane and Lewis were looking out for us today.” Cleo told Rikki. Emma had since taken off to try to rectify things with Ash after the three girls had been fawning over Nate all day.

“Yeah,” Rikki replied. She was glad Nate of all people didn’t know their mermaid identity. But something was still weighing on her mind. “A little too lucky, don’t you think?”

“What do you mean?” The dark haired mermaid asked her.

“Well, we obviously don’t fawn over Nate like that.” Rikki said and she saw Cleo’s face shrink up at the thought of it. “Why did we do it today?”

“Is it a full moon?” Cleo asked.

“No, that’s not for another week.” Rikki replied.

“Well, maybe it’s something to do with the moon.” Cleo tried again.

“Cleo, it’s full sunshine out.” Rikki said. “The thing that bothers me were Zane and Lewis’s reactions on the beach.”

“What do you mean?” Cleo asked. “They took care of us today.”

“Yeah, but why didn’t they seem surprised?” Rikki mused. “It doesn’t feel right to me.”

“I think you’re reading too much into this.” Cleo said. “Come on, let’s head back.”

Rikki still felt a little off about Lewis and Zane when she was hanging out with the latter at his place that night. She had always been good at sneaking in but she rarely stayed the night and unless she found that he actually was just being a heroic Prince Charming, she likely wasn’t going to stay the night tonight. They were just going to silently work on their homework and then she would leave. Or at least she would attempt to do her homework on what she assumed was the first laptop ever created. Zane had offered to buy her a new one multiple times but she had turned him down.

“Today was weird.” She mused aloud, not expecting much of a response from him.

“Tell me about it.” Zane said back. “Do you remember anything from your time as one of Nate’s ladies?”

Rikki scrunched up her face, similar to what Cleo had done earlier that day.

“Do you think if I did, I’d be falling all over him?” Rikki replied.

“I doubt it.” Zane said with a laugh. “At least now we know.”

“Now you know what?” Rikki replied.

“Nothing.” He stated, like a liar. Rikki looked at him like she was suspicious of something.

“Why are you lying to me?” She asked.

“I’m not lying.” Zane said back, throwing his defenses up. “I-Sorry I was doing my homework and talking to you, I got distracted”

“Hm.” Rikki said in a tone that let him know she still didn’t believe him. “All right.”

“I’m not lying.” Zane tried again.

“Sure.” Rikki said as she turned her attention back to her computer.

Zane knew she was just trying to get at him and he couldn’t imagine the trouble he’d be in if she found out about the Ambergris and how he’d been dumb enough to let it slip into Nate’s hands.

Rikki seemed to turn her concentrations back on her homework. She’d tackle this issue with Zane later. This paper was due tomorrow after all and she had characteristically waited until tonight to start it. Her laptop crashed often and she didn’t mind it when she was a paragraph in or even a page but when she was a sentence away from finishing her paper and it crashed, that’s when she got pissed.

“Uggghh.” She groaned. “Stupid fucking computer.”

“This would all be solved if you just let me buy you a new one.” Zane said.

She gave him a death glare that would usually send someone running for the hills. Zane seemed to be immune to it. Whether it was because he had received it so many times he was no longer bothered or because he knew she wasn’t as big and bad as she played it, she didn’t know but she sometimes missed when she could send Zane Bennett a mile away with just one look.

“Not now.” She hissed between her teeth.

“Look, it’s no big deal,” Zane said as he stroked her arm. “I’m done with my homework so you can use my laptop if you want.”

“Thanks.” She replied, taking some pity. Yes, she did miss sending Zane a mile away with one look but she was also happy he seemed to have a knack for taking her anger and turning was likely to be an argument into a solution.

“And with that, I’m going to take a shower.” He said as he moved out of his bed. “You want to join?”

“Not unless you want me to collapse on you.”

“Is that the only reason?” He asked with a wink before he entered his bathroom attached to his room. He was still so full of himself but he made her blush nonetheless.

Rikki opened up a new document and started re-typing her paper. She needed to include some sources and didn’t remember everything she had written down so she opened his web browser too. A forbidden thought jumped into her head then; would his search history explain why he was acting so weird? She hated overhearing girls at her school talking about going through their boyfriend’s phone or computer. If you don’t trust them, dump them she thought. She’d be pissed if she found out Zane was going through her personal belongings to figure out what she was doing when they weren’t together. Maybe that was one of the reasons they worked so well together. They loved each other’s company but they also loved space from each other.

Still, some gut feeling inside her was telling her to check it out. Before she could convince herself it was a bad idea, she was running through his extensive search history. He sure was getting his money’s worth on this laptop. She had to shuffle through all the pages he had gone to for homework tonight before she saw what he was continuously searching the night before and the next morning.

“Ambergris.” She muttered aloud to herself. She wasn’t sure she was pronouncing it correctly. She’d never heard of it before. Why the hell was Zane searching this so much?

The site he was on that morning was for an antique shop. She hoped he wasn’t buying her some expensive gift. She saw an image of an old perfume bottle, the description reading ‘Pure Ambergris’ that was sold this morning. Was Rikki acting crazy this morning too? So crazy she asked for this weird perfume that he was looking to buy? Or bought?

She concluded she’d just be confused if she stayed on the antique shop’s site so she continued further down his search history. He was still just searching about Ambergris until she found an article that stuck out; Things to Watch out For- Mermaids: The Past and Present Myths and Facts. She went to that site. Although Rikki had been a mermaid for barely a year and was albeit naive to the world of it, she did know some things about it. The article mentioned how the full moon can cause mermaids to lose their minds and to steer clear of sharks, water and humans. All of these she knew to be true but she had never heard of the dangers of Ambergris.

“This stuff, when put on a human male, can put a mermaid under its spell as soon as she smells it. It will have her drooling over him, beau or not. Most likely mermaids will not have to worry about this, as it smells foul to humans, but be wary just in case.” She read aloud, again to herself.

That described her afternoon with Nate. She remembered Ash had asked her if she thought Nate smelled awful or not and then she was walking along the pier with the girls. Nate was mind numbingly dumb and probably didn’t have a care in the world about his body odor, if he could smell it. That’s probably why the cafe was uncharacteristically empty when she entered it; his stench was so awful to everyone else. Nate had no idea they were mermaids though and even if he did, he probably wouldn’t have been smart enough to figure a way to seduce them. Then again, she wasn’t looking at Nate’s search history.

She was looking at Zane’s.

Two and two seemed to put themselves together and Rikki could feel her blood boiling. Just then, she heard his shower turn off and she knew he’d be exiting the bathroom soon. She could tell him what she was doing and get angry with him. Or she could mess with him a little bit. She easily chose the latter.

“Nice shower?” She asked as if nothing was wrong. She continued to stare at his computer which was now open to a blank browser but for all he knew, she was working on her paper. The paper that would not be turned in tomorrow thanks to him.

“Yeah,” he replied as he shook his damp hair away from her. “I still think it would have been better if you were there.”

“I don’t think that idea is as sexy as you think.” Rikki said. “Unless you think having a shower with a fish is sexy.”

“Only a half fish.” Zane said. “How’s the paper coming along?”

“Good,” she replied. “It’s a marine biology paper.”

“Oh yeah?” Zane asked. “You should be good at that.”

“Yeah, you’d think.” Rikki sighed.

“Do you need any help?” He asked.

“I don’t know.” She said. “I mean it’s about whales. I’m not sure I’ve seen a whale in the ocean.”

“Well, what do you have so far?” Zane asked.

“The usual.” She had replied. “They’re huge, they’re mammals, they have blow holes. But that doesn’t take up three pages.”

“True.” Zane said. “How could I help?”

“I don’t know.” Rikki replied as she felt him falling into her trap. “Do you know anything more about whales?”

“I-No.” Zane replied in his liar voice again. “Do you think I just walk around with a vast knowledge of whales in my mind?”

“Well you have proved yourself to be smarter than I thought on multiple occasions.” Rikki said. “Just thought I’d check.

“Although I did see something on their droppings.”

“Their...droppings?” Zane asked in the same nervous voice. He knew he must sound suspicious so he had to throw her off his trail. “You want to talk to me, your boyfriend, about whale droppings?”

“I know it’s not the sexiest subject but it’s actually pretty interesting.” She said. “Whale droppings are sometimes referred to as Ambergris.”

“O-oh?” Zane asked, clearly becoming more and more nervous by the minute. He took a moment to clear his throat or he knew his voice would be far too high pitched. “What’s so interesting about that?”

“Well, it turns out there’s an old myth about mermaids and Ambergris.” Rikki continued. “This site says mermaids are mesmerized by the smell when it’s worn on a human male. But it also says it’s not that big of a threat to mermaids because it smells so awful to humans.”

“Well that’s-“ Zane started, stretching his hand over his head. “That’s interesting.”

“Yeah.” Rikki said. “Interesting. Hey, don’t you think that might be what happened with Nate earlier today? I mean everyone else in the cafe left. I remember Ash asked me if he stank and then I was by the pier. And Nate’s...well... Nate. He probably either didn’t smell it or wasn’t bothered by it.”

“Maybe.” Zane replied. He hoped this was just a coincidence and that she didn’t somehow gain mind reading powers while he was in the shower. “Where would he have bought any of that stuff?”

“Oh there’s an antique shop that sold a bottle of pure Ambergris this morning.” Rikki said. “Maybe Nate got it this morning.

“The only thing I can’t figure out is why he got it.” Rikki said. Zane nodded, worried his voice would give him away. “I mean, it’s supposed to smell disgusting to humans and I know he’s been after Cleo. He wouldn’t know our secret at all, would he?”

“No, of course not.” Zane responded instantly. He was hurt by her accusation. Sure, Nate was one of his best mates but he was as thick as Rikki described him, he couldn’t keep a secret if he wanted to. “You think if he did know, Lewis and I wouldn’t have pushed for you guys to swim out into the ocean?”

“That’s true.” Rikki said getting off the bed, waking up to him and planting a kiss on his lips.

“That’s the first true thing you’ve said to me all night.” She muttered against his lips.

“How did you know?” Zane asked, removing her arms from around his neck.

“It all just felt too lucky to me.” Rikki replied. “I thought I’d check your search history and I put two and two together.”

“What were you doing looking at my search history?!” Zane accused her.

“What were you doing giving a bottle of liquid seduction to Nate?!” She shot back. It was times like these she was thankful Harrison slept on the other side of the house, practically in a different territory. If they were at her house, the whole neighborhood would have been woken up.

“I didn’t give it to Nate!” Zane said. “Why the hell would I give that to Nate when I could have used it on you myself?”

“So that’s what this was about.” Rikki tutted back. “Why were you trying to seduce me? I’m already your girlfriend if you hadn’t noticed.”

“No, that’s not-“ Zane stopped himself and took a big sigh. “That’s not what I wanted to do with it. Not really anyway.”

“Oh, like you wouldn’t want it now?” Rikki replied.

“Well, given the circumstances, maybe-“ Zane had started.

“Zane!” Rikki yelled back, taking offense.

“All right, look, I thought it might be interesting to see if it worked is all.” Zane replied. “I wasn’t trying to get you to fall over me like you did with Nate. I think that would be pretty annoying to be honest. I just like reading about mermaid stuff because I’m interested in learning more about you and protecting you.”

“Well, that’s nice and all but I’m not some science project.” Rikki said. “I already feel weird and ostracized enough as it is.”

“I-I’m sorry, love.” He said as he wrapped his arms around her. “I should have just left it as research.”

“Yeah, you should have.” She said. Rikki was still mad at Zane but she allowed him to hug her. “At least next time you find something interesting about mermaids, talk to me about it and maybe we can try it. And not in public where I could humiliate myself... or worse.”

“Fair enough.” He said. “So do you forgive me?”

“Hm.” Rikki hesitated. She did forgive him but she didn’t want to let him off that easy.

“I’ll forgive you, under one condition.” She said.

“Sure, what is it?” Zane had asked.

“Do you still have that Ambergris?”

“No, Lewis chucked it in the ocean.”

“Hm. Pity.” Rikki said. She didn’t sound too upset though. “Next time I’m here, I want you wearing Ambergris. Douse yourself in it and I’ll spend all night with you.”

“But that stuff stinks!” Zane said. 

“Not to me it doesn’t.” Rikki replied as she packed up her things. “Did it look like I was having a horrible time in the cafe?”

“No, but I told you I thought you acting like that would be annoying.” Zane tried.

“What a shame,” Rikki said in a clearly, fake sympathetic voice. “You were the one who wanted to use it.”

She gave him one last kiss before she moved to the window to crawl out and head home. 

“I’ll see you next time.” She said. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll get that shower you so desperately want.”

Maybe this wouldn’t be the worst punishment after all, Zane thought.

AN: I hope you guys enjoyed this short little oneshot I thought up! I recently watched the episode "Irresistible" for either the first time or the first time in a long time and thought this up. I thought it was weird that hte girls just thought they were acting weird all episode and didn't question Zane or Lewis about it and I'm always looking for an excuse to write Zikki stuff. Speaking of which, I'm on a bit of a Zikki kick so I might be posting more Zikki-centric oneshots and/or stories soon! I'm also not too sure how common place it was for high schoolers to have laptops back in 2007 but the story doesn't work with out it so here we are.


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